February 22

Events

1847 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
1862 - Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
1889 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
1915 - World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
1922 – The British unilaterally declare the independence of Egypt.
1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
1948 - Communist coup in Czechoslovakia.
1958 - Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
1979 – Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
1994 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.

1403 - Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
1732 - George Washington, First President of the United States (d. 1799)
1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
1903 - Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian National Socialist (d. 1969)
1932 - Edward Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
1938 - Pierre Vallières, founding member of the Front de libération du Québec (d. 1995)
1943 - Eduard Limonov, founder of Russia's National Bolshevik Party.
1955 - David Axelrod, American political consultant